EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SCOTT SUTTELL

Cleveland to host urban innovation conference

Ahead of the Vanguard Conference on urban innovation taking place in Cleveland next week, the PreservationNation Blog offers a photo essay of five reasons to love the Rust Belt.

They are: space to dream big; art to turn heads; good building stock; a can-do attitude; and a propensity for personal reflection. (That last one seems a bit of a stretch, but we'll take it.)

Vanguard is a fellowship program “that gathers emerging urban leaders working to improve cities across such various fields as urban planning, community development, entrepreneurship, government, transportation, sustainability, design, art and media,” according to material from Next City, the conference organizer. (Next City describes itself as a nonprofit media organization “dedicated to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable economic growth in America's cities and examining how and why our built environment, economy, society and culture are changing.”)

More than 40 young leaders — people under age 40 — from 28 cities will visit Cleveland for a series of presentations, workshops, tours and other activities. Vanguard members will visit 25 different places in and around downtown.

On their itinerary: a boat tour of Cuyahoga River waterfront development, a bike ride through the Detroit Shoreway and Ohio City neighborhoods, and a tour of the East Side's emerging urban agriculture scene.

Vanguard members will hear talks given by local leaders including Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman; Terry Schwarz, director of Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative; and Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc.

Oh, the humanities!

At Harvard and elsewhere, college students such as Youngstown's Shannon Lytle are turning away from English, philosophy, history, etc., in favor of majors they believe will give them an edge in the job market.

The Wall Street Journal says a new report from the humanities division at Harvard “suggests the division aggressively market itself to freshmen and sophomores, create a broader interdisciplinary framework to retain students and build an internship network to establish the value of the degree in the workforce.”

Among recent college graduates who majored in English, the unemployment rate was 9.8%, The Journal says. For philosophy and religious-studies majors, it was 9.5%; and for history majors, it was also 9.5%, according to a report this month by the Georgetown Public Policy Institute that used data from 2010 and 2011.

By comparison, the paper notes, “recent chemistry graduates were unemployed at a rate of just 5.8%; and elementary-education graduates were at 5%.”

Students seem to be aware of the numbers; in 2010, just 7% of college graduates nationally majored in the humanities, down from 14% in 1966, The Journal says.

Mr. Lytle, 19, who is heading into his sophomore year at Harvard, tells the newspaper he considered majoring in history, but instead he will pick computer science when he declares a concentration in a few months.

"People say you should do what you love," he says. "But the reality is that it's kind of a tougher economic time, and we do have to worry about living after graduation. I don't want to be doing what I love and be homeless.”

This and that

Remember this, jobseekers: Forbes.com rounds up the 10 U.S. companies with the most summer jobs still available, and one of them is the Highland Heights-based Things Remembered chain, which sells engraved gifts such as photo frames, decanters and martini glasses.

“These are not jobs that require a college degree and the store associates make minimum wage,” the website notes. “Store managers can do a little better, starting at $30,000 a year,” and according to Amy Myers, vice president of creative services at Things Remembered, managers can earn more with experience.

She says the company's 700 openings aren't technically summer jobs, but rather “core” positions. The company is hiring now and needs people to work over the summer, according to Forbes.com.

One tip from Ms. Myers: If you want to work for Things Remembered, the best way to apply “is not through a faceless website, but by approaching a store manager in your community,” the website reports.

Scott Perry, vice president of supply management for Miami-based Ryder, tells Bloomberg that the number of partners is up from 12 two years ago.

The degree to which companies are embracing natural gas as a transportation fuel means its use will keep growing and supplant some diesel demand, Mr. Perry notes. He tells Bloomberg that the development of fueling stations, truck engines and lower-cost manufacturing capabilities also is rising.

“There are so many positive variables there,” including abundant supply, environmental benefits and cost, he says.

By the numbers:Education Weekreports the financial health of three U.S. school districts — including Cleveland's — facing significant teacher-pension liabilities “varies greatly based on the choices lawmakers have made to deal with the debts,” according to a new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank.

The study projects how the pension costs in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Cleveland will fare financially through 2020. The scenarios are quite different.

“In Milwaukee, savings have been effected because of the controversial 2011 Act 10, which removed retiree health benefits from the scope of collective bargaining and required teachers pay half of their annual pension contribution,” Education Week says. “In Cleveland, legislative changes have raised employee benefits and reduced contributions, but those alterations will be felt primarily by new employees; and Philadelphia, which is in big trouble because of uncertainties about whether the state will continue to help pay some of its share. Under a worst-case scenario, pensions could account for 13 percent of Philadelphia's budget by 2020.”

In all, “the report estimates that per-pupil retirement costs will rise by just $64 in Milwaukee, actually fall by $107 in Cleveland, and will skyrocket to between $752 to $1,923 in Philadelphia,” according to the story.

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